Komodo phinisi cabin types: how to read a cabin list before you book

By Komodo Cabin Charter Editorial Desk

Sourced figures: rates in the table carry their source and check month. Most are published by a single seller for a single boat, so they are not a market price, and nothing here is legal advice.

Cabin types on Komodo phinisi listings run from a bed in a shared bunk room to a private room with its own bathroom, but each seller chooses its own names. Read four details instead of the label: the bed layout, where the bathroom is, the minimum number of guests, and who else sleeps in the room.

What cabin types do listings show?

On a Komodo cabin charter the cabin is what you are buying, and we have found no common standard for cabin names across sellers, so a cabin list has to be read one boat at a time. The table gathers what a handful of published listings actually say. Each row describes one seller or one boat and should not be stretched to cover the market. "Not stated" means the text we cite is silent, which is your cue to ask.

A marketplace adds another vocabulary. One TourRadar listing for a three-day trip shows separate prices for four room bases: a lowest-priced basis, shared, private single and private double. Those words describe how you occupy a room and leave the room itself undescribed.

What do cabin minimums mean for you?

A minimum tells you how many fares a seller wants from a room before it will sell the room. Salam Ransel will sell a solo guest a place in a shared cabin but wants at least two guests in a private one. The Komodo Trips listing in the table applies the same floor to its Master and Private cabins, and three to one Triple. What that means depends on the size of your party.

• One guest. You are the person minimums work against. Green Rinjani gives solo guests a choice of three: take a shared cabin and share a bed with other passengers, pay double in a shared cabin for a bed to yourself, or pay for two and have a private cabin. That is one agent's policy, and the guide for solo travellers treats it seller by seller.
• Two guests. You clear the common private-cabin floor, which is why, on these listings, the room opens up to couples and to friends willing to share. Friends should check the bed before assuming they can sleep apart.
• Three guests. A Triple exists on the listing above, but its third berth is a single bunk. Decide who sleeps there, and ask whether it suits an adult.
• Four or more. On the one detailed list above you would need two cabins, and the split decides the fare. A traveller on one budget boat suggests going direct to lock in a private cabin for a family. That is one person's advice about one boat, and worth testing against what your seller can put in writing. At that size also price a whole boat, using published private rates and our comparison of the two formats.

Is the bathroom inside the cabin?

Not always, and this is the detail a cabin name hides most often. Two published descriptions point in opposite directions. Hello Flores describes a private bathroom on the cruise it sells. Komodo Touristic warns of bathrooms outside the cabin on many budget tours.

So ask two questions, because the answer to the first does not settle the second. Where is the bathroom, and how many people use it? Boat size feeds into this, as our page on guest numbers explains. An ensuite on a small boat and a shared block on a full one are different nights.

Hot water is a further question. The same Hello Flores review reports hot water in lower-deck cabins on its boat. That is a seller's observation of one vessel. The page on cabin bathrooms and comfort goes further into what to ask.

How wide is the gap between a shared berth and a private cabin?

Narrower than the two labels suggest on the four boats we can cite, and on one of them nil. OpenTripKomodo, a Labuan Bajo marketplace, published per-person fares for a shared cabin and the lowest-priced private cabin on each boat, as of 5 October 2026. We turned its figures into percentages so they stay readable after fares move; the sum is ours, and the rupiah amounts are on its page.

Four boats on one seller's site are a sample, and fares move with dates. The percentage also answers only half the question. On the Aimar, that lowest-priced private room is a bunk cabin whose bathroom is outside and shared, so the extra buys a door. The marketplace tells pairs to take the private room when the step is small, and it sells both, so test that against your own quote. For four friends it suggests a different route: buy all four berths in one shared cabin, and the room is yours at the per-person shared fare.

Why do cabin names not compare across boats?

Three reasons, none of them visible from the name.

Names belong to the seller. "Private Cabin" sits beside "Master Cabin" on one list, as a separate category, while another seller describes its whole shared cruise in terms of a private room, bed and bathroom. A guest comparing "private" on two quotes may be comparing one category on one boat with the ordinary room on another.

Boat classes get mistaken for cabin classes. On Salam Ransel's list, superior, deluxe and luxury describe boats. On Labuan Bajo Tourism's cruises the price moves by cabin within a boat, with named suites at the top. Words like superior can therefore tell you about the hull or about the room, depending on who wrote them. Ask which.

Size is missing. Listings give no cross-boat figures for cabin area, ceiling height or bed dimensions, so a name cannot stand in for a measurement. Ask for photos of the room you would occupy, and ask where bags go, since one traveller writing at Mini Adventures found no space for them on a budget boat.

How does the cabin change the fare?

On some boats it is the fare. Labuan Bajo Tourism's two shared cruises, the Ballona and a standard phinisi, each appear in the price table on this page as a band that runs by cabin, so the top and bottom of the row are different rooms on one boat. Salam Ransel's superior and luxury rows work differently. They are the lowest published rate for a class of boat on one agent's list, and they tell you nothing about the cabins above that floor.

Compare a floor with another floor only after confirming that both buy the same kind of room, because the lowest rate on a boat is likely to be its least private or least equipped option. When a quote says "from", ask which cabin the figure buys and what the cabin you actually want costs on that boat. Our page on cabin charter cost sets these rows among other sellers' rates.

How is a cabin assigned on a shared trip?

Order of confirmation matters more than order of enquiry, on the evidence available. Neptune Liveaboards, a Komodo liveaboard operator, hands out cabins in the order bookings are confirmed, and makes upgrades subject to what is left. Those are the terms of one dive operator, but the logic is likely to apply wherever cabins are few and sold singly.

Salam Ransel describes a sequence worth asking for elsewhere: no money changes hands before the boat confirms the cabin, and only then does a deposit fall due. Whoever you buy from, try to keep those steps apart. A request is not a reservation, and a reservation that names no cabin leaves the seller free to place you where room remains. Ask for the cabin label, and the deck if the boat has several, to appear on the confirmation, and ask what happens to your fare if the boat moves you to another room. How a cabin charter works follows that sequence through to boarding, and the booking guide sets out the quote.

What should you ask for in writing?

Copy this list into your first message to any seller. If a line comes back blank, ask again for that line alone.

1. The boat's name and the cabin label exactly as the seller uses it.
2. The bed layout: queen, double, singles or bunks, and who sleeps where.
3. The bathroom: inside the cabin or outside, and if shared, among how many people.
4. The minimum number of guests for that cabin, and what you pay if your party falls below it.
5. Who else sleeps in the room, if it is shared, and whether it can be mixed.
6. Air conditioning, and any hours it does not run.
7. Where bags go.
8. Recent photos of the actual room.
9. The fare for that cabin, and the fare difference if you are reassigned.

If you are deciding whether to share at all, read what to expect when sharing a cabin on an open trip. The fare lines that belong in the same quote are on our inclusions page.

What else do buyers ask about cabins?

Can one person book a private cabin?

Yes, on some listings, if you pay for two. Green Rinjani offers solo guests that route, and Salam Ransel's two-guest minimum points the same way. Ask the seller how it treats one guest in a two-guest room before you compare fares.

Does a master cabin always have its own bathroom?

Not necessarily. The Master Cabin on the Komodo Trips listing has a private bathroom, but another boat may use the word differently. Have the seller state the bathroom's location for your cabin.

Are shared cabins split between men and women?

It depends on the boat. One traveller reports a mixed cabin on a budget boat, while Moana Cruising and the Leticia place solo guests with someone of the same gender. We know of no rule for the whole market, so ask about your boat before you pay.

Can I pick a specific cabin when I book?

It depends on the seller and on timing. Neptune Liveaboards allocates in order of booking confirmation, so an earlier confirmed guest may hold the room you want. Name your preferred cabin in your first message and have it written on the confirmation.

Is a superior boat the same thing as a superior cabin?

No. Salam Ransel uses superior as a class of boat on its list, and a boat in any class can contain several grades of room. Ask the seller to state both the boat's class and the cabin's name.

Which sources support this page?

• TourRadar, 3-day phinisi listing
• Salam Ransel, Komodo boat tour comparison
• Komodo Trips, 3D2N open-trip listing
• Green Rinjani: three-day shared tour
• Hello Flores, shared cruise review by a seller
• Komodo Touristic: shared and private tour mistakes
• Mini Adventures (traveller), overnight boat account
• Labuan Bajo Tourism: three-day cruise guide
• Neptune Liveaboards, terms
• OpenTripKomodo: shared or private cabin

How do I reach the desk?

Tell the desk which boat and cabin label you are looking at, and how many of you are travelling. WhatsApp +62 811-3941-4563 or email bd@juaraholding.com. If you have a quote already, paste the cabin wording as the seller wrote it.